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Performances and films at the York Festival of Ideas 2016

Upcoming performances and films

Previous performances and films

Ian Shaw and Liane Carroll

Sunday 19 June 2016

Join us for the first in a series of Sunday afternoon jazz concerts featuring two stunning voices and magnificent singer-pianists. Ian Shaw and Liane Carroll, who have four BBC jazz awards between them, bring personality, musical class and incorrigible wit to a vast repertoire that covers the jazz songbook, contemporary songs and their own originals.

Yorkshire Bach Choir: Monteverdi and Croce

Saturday 18 June 2016

Join Yorkshire Bach Choir as they transport you back to the incredible flowering of music activity of late Renaissance Venice. Monteverdi’s extraordinary Missa In Illo Tempore (Mass in that Time) references the temporal in its curious title. Alongside Monteverdi, YBC will ‘turn back time’ by reviving rarely heard music by Giovanni Croce and Teodoro Clionio.

Quercus Feat: June Tabor

Friday 17 June 2016

June Tabor, Iain Ballamy and Huw Warren create exquisite chamber music that weaves together the essence of folk and jazz. Drawing on their life’s work, the trio Quercus subtly colours each song to create a magical atmosphere. Together they create poignant music that forges June’s passionate voice with Iain’s mellifluous melodies and Huw’s off-kilter musicality, to tell of life’s bitter sweet tales.

Jewish Cabaret Tradition

Thursday 16 June 2016

The Grammy-nominated New Budapest Orpheum Society, an Ensemble-in-Residence at the University of Chicago, draws upon a wide range of repertoires, many forgotten, others preserved in European archives, all poignantly bearing witness to the great tradition of Jewish cabaret. They will perform works from their repertoire and works recently rediscovered by Performing the Jewish Archive researchers.

A (Last) Night of the Proms

Wednesday 15 June 2016

The University Choir joins forces with the world-famous Grimethorpe Colliery Band for a joyful celebration of favourites for choir and band, including Jerusalem and Land of Hope and Glory. A rousing community event - presented by distinguished radio presenter and choral conductor Brian Kay - to mark the end of the 2015/16 University concert series. Sponsored by Evans Property Group, Schroders and the University Partnership Programme.

Sonic Sea

Wednesday 15 June 2016

Sonic Sea is a 60-minute documentary film about the impact of industrial and military ocean noise on whales and other marine life. It tells the story of Ken Balcomb, a former US Navy officer who solved a tragic mystery involving a mass stranding of whales in the Bahamas and changed forever the way we understand our impact on the ocean. Professor Callum Roberts from the Environment Department at The University of York will give will give a brief introduction to the film, reflecting on the state of the oceans and our efforts to increase their protection.

Musical Inventions Showcase

Wednesday 15 June 2016

The Musical Inventions Showcase is the culmination of a creative composition project, led by the National Centre for Early Music, working with professional composer Kate Pearson and secondary schools from across York. The event provides a platform for young people to share newly-created musical works, developed in response to existing pieces of classical music, as part of the BBC Ten Pieces initiative.

Fractured Lives: Music of the Holocaust

Wednesday 15 June 2016

Join Noreen and Phillip Silver for a concert of music for piano and cello by composers caught up in the horrors of the Holocaust. The programme includes the European premiere of piano pieces by 12-year-old prodigy Josima Feldschuh who perished in Warsaw.

Time Out of Mind: Stories of Mental Health in York

Tuesday 14 June 2016

Take a journey through the history of the treatment of mental health in York with the Out of Character Theatre Company as they look to the future for a new design for mental health. With stories ranging from the darkly comic to the tragic, the performance includes dramatised accounts from the past and present performed by theatre company members who have lived experience of mental health problems.

SONICULES: Designing Drugs with Sound Performance and Q&A Session

Sunday 12 June 2016

SONICULES is a live audio-visual performance exploring the process and challenges involved in the design of new anticancer drugs. Researchers at the University of York are investigating how displaying data as sound could potentially speed up the design process.

Keeping Time: Music, Metronomes, Machines

Sunday 12 June 2016

Poème Symphonique is an iconic 20th century work by György Ligeti, written for 100 metronomes. Join us for a rare opportunity to hear this unique piece, followed by a talk that uncovers its mysteries. A further performance features works for clarinet and percussion, picking up on the themes of time and speed. An afternoon of enchanting music explored through engaging talks.

Faber New Poets

Sunday 12 June 2016

Come along and meet three Faber New Poets as they read their poetry. A showcase of the very best of the next generation of poets, this event includes Sam Buchan-Watts, a University of York student, fellow 2016 Faber New Poet Rachel Curzon from Leeds, and Rachael Allen whose first pamphlet was published in 2014.

Carmina Burana

Saturday 11 June 2016

The 160-strong choir of York Musical Society perform Orff’s Carmina Burana. It begins and ends with O Fortuna, familiar from adverts, TV clips and sports events, and much more exciting to hear ‘live’. The songs tell of the fickleness of fortune and wealth, and the joys of drinking, greed and lust. To complement this work, the programme also includes two popular pieces by Brahms, Zigeunerlieder and Geistliches Lied.

The Radio Edit

Saturday 11 June 2016

You can play ‘in time’. You can definitely play ‘out of time’. But is there any space in-between? The Radio Edit presents an experimental jazz trio asking that exact question. A continuous stream of improvised worlds of music, drawing on everything and everyone from Miles Davis to Stephen Sondheim.

James Shirley’s Hyde Park

Saturday 11 June 2016

A hundred suitors cannot be half the trouble of a husband!’ Festival time in Hyde Park: a place for amorous intrigue and unexpected encounters. Three women, setting their own rules, make life-defining choices – and teach the men who pursue them a lesson in the process. Is razor-sharp wit a true defence against love? Shirley’s hilarious battle of the sexes provides the answer in this modern staging. This event is supported by the Sylvia and Colin Shepherd Charitable Trust.

Tlatelolco: Song for Three Voices

Saturday 11 June 2016

Join us for a three-voice poem reading set to music. The poem, Tlatelolco (Song for Three Voices), was written by Mexican poet Marcela Del-Rio in commemoration of the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre in Mexico City. It connects the pre-Conquest period, the Spanish Conquest of Mexico, and the violence of the 1968 massacre, into an emotional mourning song.

Make Once More My Heart Thy Home

Friday 10 June 2016

Hans Gál was one of a generation of Jewish composers forced to flee Austria when the Nazis invaded. A celebration of Gál’s love of choral music, this programme places his own works amid the music he most admired - Schütz, Haydn, Schumann and Brahms. The music is presented by the Clothworkers Consort of Leeds and directed by Bryan White.

James Shirley’s Hyde Park

Friday 10 June 2016

A hundred suitors cannot be half the trouble of a husband!’ Festival time in Hyde Park: a place for amorous intrigue and unexpected encounters. Three women, setting their own rules, make life-defining choices – and teach the men who pursue them a lesson in the process. Is razor-sharp wit a true defence against love? Shirley’s hilarious battle of the sexes provides the answer in this modern staging. This event is supported by the Sylvia and Colin Shepherd Charitable Trust.

James Shirley’s Hyde Park

Thursday 9 June 2016

A hundred suitors cannot be half the trouble of a husband!’ Festival time in Hyde Park: a place for amorous intrigue and unexpected encounters. Three women, setting their own rules, make life-defining choices – and teach the men who pursue them a lesson in the process. Is razor-sharp wit a true defence against love? Shirley’s hilarious battle of the sexes provides the answer in this modern staging. This event is supported by the Sylvia and Colin Shepherd Charitable Trust.

Lust, Madness and Melancholy

Thursday 9 June 2016

Join early music band Poeticall Musicke for an exhilarating evening of chamber music. Specialising in early and middle Baroque, Poeticall Musicke presents a solo song and lute repertoire from Henry Purcell, John Blow and John Dowland.

Amores Pasados

Thursday 9 June 2016

The Amores Pasados quartet, led by the acclaimed tenor John Potter, presents new repertoires for voices, hardanger fiddle and lutes. Featuring texts by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, songs of lost love have been commissioned from John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), Tony Banks (Genesis), Sting and Gavin Bryars. These contemporary compositions contrast with songs by composers of the ‘lost’ early 20th century English lute song school.

Action Poetry

Thursday 9 June 2016

Action Poetry is a live performance event presenting the work of acclaimed poets Karen Mac Cormack and Steve McCaffery. By lifting the poem off the page, poetry is no longer a static object in a book but is an action performed in space and time. Come along and experience poems in ‘real-time’ as Karen and Steve activate poetry’s sonic and phonic dimensions.

Organ Vespers

Wednesday 8 June 2016

Organ Vespers comes from the German Lutheran tradition. The service comprises three or four selected organ pieces together with a hymn and a reading or poem, all on a common theme. This service will take the Festival theme of ‘Tick Tock’ as its inspiration.

Amazing Memories of Childhood

Wednesday 8 June 2016

Mairi MacInnes reads from her new book Amazing Memories of Childhood, etc. A selection of poems from six collections published over six decades, the book also includes a series of new work exploring place and memory. Anne Stevenson has praised her ‘visionary realism’, Richard Wilbur her ‘fierce attachments to familiar and natural things’ and Helen Dunmore her ability ‘to create a powerful sense of the identity of place.’

Making Music out of Mountains

Wednesday 8 June 2016

What would it be like to hear a mountain? Or to listen to rock formations as they grow? Join geologist and artist Tim Ivanic, who spends his life exploring and mapping the Australian outback, Jude Brereton, an expert in turning data into sound, and award-winning composer James Cave, to explore 500 million years of the earth’s history through the medium of surround sound and music.

1916: The Irish Rebellion

Tuesday 7 June 2016

Join us for an edited screening of the documentary 1916: The Irish Rebellion presented by its writer and producer, and a renowned Irish historian, followed by a panel discussion featuring the Ambassador of Ireland to the UK. Narrated by Liam Neeson, the documentary tells the dramatic story of the events that took place in Dublin during Easter Week 1916 when a small group of Irish rebels took on the might of the British Empire.

Making Music out of Mountains

Tuesday 7 June 2016

What would it be like to hear a mountain? Or to listen to rock formations as they grow? Join geologist and artist Tim Ivanic, who spends his life exploring and mapping the Australian outback, Jude Brereton, an expert in turning data into sound, and award-winning composer James Cave, to explore 500 million years of the earth’s history through the medium of surround sound and music.

Tick Tock: Trumpet and Organ Concert

Tuesday 7 June 2016

Join Mike O'Farrell on trumpet and John Bradbury on organ for an exhilarating and imaginative programme specially designed to reflect this year’s Festival theme, Tick Tock.

Harlequin in the Ghetto

Sunday 5 June 2016

In the World War Two Jewish ghetto at Theresienstadt, a young prisoner wrote a commedia dell'arte-inspired play, Comedy about a Trap. Would Harlequin the lovable clown escape the clutches of the Capitano? These new works, based on preserved fragments of the script, question: what are we to make of a comedy written during the Holocaust?

Harlequin in the Ghetto

Saturday 4 June 2016

In the World War Two Jewish ghetto at Theresienstadt, a young prisoner wrote a commedia dell'arte-inspired play, Comedy about a Trap. Would Harlequin the lovable clown escape the clutches of the Capitano? These new works, based on preserved fragments of the script, question: what are we to make of a comedy written during the Holocaust?

Harlequin in the Ghetto

Friday 3 June 2016

In the World War Two Jewish ghetto at Theresienstadt, a young prisoner wrote a commedia dell'arte-inspired play, Comedy about a Trap. Would Harlequin the lovable clown escape the clutches of the Capitano? These new works, based on preserved fragments of the script, question: what are we to make of a comedy written during the Holocaust?

Harlequin in the Ghetto

Thursday 2 June 2016

In the World War Two Jewish ghetto at Theresienstadt, a young prisoner wrote a commedia dell'arte-inspired play, Comedy about a Trap. Would Harlequin the lovable clown escape the clutches of the Capitano? These new works, based on preserved fragments of the script, question: what are we to make of a comedy written during the Holocaust?